Instagram's page on AppData, which reports user numbers based on data obtained through Facebook's API, now states that "Facebook no longer reports new data for this application."

As an example cited by TechCrunch, Instagram showed 45.8 million monthly active users on January 7 as measured by Facebook logins. That number was zero as of yesterday.

Facebook told TechCrunch that the move was designed to bring Instagram in accord with its other apps, which don't appear separately in AppData.

"We don't provide app usage metrics for apps owned or created by Facebook through our API," a spokesperson told TechCrunch. "We've updated our API to reflect this for Instagram, which would remove it from AppData's rankings."

The move follows a mess of controversy that hit Facebook and Instagram last month.

A subsequent story from the New York Post said that the policy flap caused Instagram to lose almost 25 percent of its active users. The Post ran its story after someone at AppData claimed to be "pretty sure" the decline was due to changes in the terms of service. However, an AppData representative told CNET that the quote was "not authorized for publication."

About the author

Journalist, software trainer, and Web developer Lance Whitney writes columns and reviews for CNET, Computer Shopper, Microsoft TechNet, and other technology sites. His first book, "Windows 8 Five Minutes at a Time," was published by Wiley & Sons in November 2012.
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